You have to be really really deep in research on period coaching or everyday life to read this. If you are, it is excellent!

From the fares for hackneys to the busiest days, from what goes into a first-class carriage, and whether you should buy it or lease it, this is solid detail. Even when he goes off to abuse public nuisances like unlicensed dogs, it tells you keeping one is taxed (as is keeping servants or horses), and even that in Paris the gens d’armes instantly dispatch any stray dogs or poultry in the street. This was news to me, and simply not to be found elsewhere.

This is especially rich in the monetary details, how much the luxury of keeping horses cost, but also the best treatment of them by someone who believed in simply keeping them healthy to begin with. The sections on the misbehaviors of bad coachmen is telling.

If you want a better feeling for life in the horse-drawn age (average speed on the city streets, 5 miles per hour), and the age of grooms and coachmen, grab a copy. It’s written lightly for the average person, with an occasional tongue in cheek, while being spot-on accurate for the era. This isn’t the heavily horsey chatter of the driving fraternity, but the book for the rest of us--if we were in 1827.